Biz Buzz: Calax smooth sailing

The controversial Cavite-Laguna Expressway project rebidding process, despite the delay it implies, has been moving at a fairly good clip.

Department of Public Works and Highways officials have indicated that bids could be submitted by May 2015 or earlier and new terms would be out next month.

There are many reasons for that. There are the obvious ones, like the efficient way things are done at the department under Secretary Rogelio Singson and the fact that it is basically the same project, just with a P20-billion or more floor price matching San Miguel Corp.’s disqualified offer.

But Biz Buzz insiders shared that there was more to all this than meets the eye, and that President Aquino or his close aides addressed the thorniest issues of all before the rebid order came out last Nov. 19.

By thorny we meant how Malacañang first got assurances that the Ayala-Aboitiz tandem, the qualified frontrunner whose offer came P8.4-billion short of San Miguel’s disqualified bid, would not oppose a re-auction and, of course, making sure that San Miguel would participate again.

Even the existence of a floor price, we hear, was designed to protect Malacañang and perhaps to appease some aggrieved parties. (We don’t doubt San Miguel will make good on its offer but it looks like the government isn’t taking any chances).

It was also important to get Singson onboard with the plan, which means there will be no shakeup at the DWPH at the very least. Miguel R. Camus

Moving on

Last we heard of the split at the CVC Law Firm, both sides were happy they were no longer tied to the other. Of course, word on the street (make that one side of the street) is that one party is happier than the other in the post-breakup environment.

The 15 partners making up the Cruz Marcelo & Tenefrancia side—or CMT, for brevity, as the Pancho Villaraza-led group managed to retain the appellation of “The Firm”—appear to have had a banner year. In fact, the CMT group is already contemplating expanding their offices barely over a year from the split.

Sources say that not only is CMT about to gain complete control of their four floors of the CVCLaw Center (the conjugal home in Bonifacio Global City during happier days), the group is also planning to establish expansion offices in a nearby portion of BGC for its growing practice.

This expansion is reportedly needed since, by 2015, the number of lawyers at CMT will grow to more than the level seen during the the CVCLaw heyday.

It should bear watching how ‘The Firm’ will respond in this long-running game of legal and corporate oneupmanship. Daxim L. Lucas

Agrarian war

Apart from the farm owners, the country’s umbrella organization of mostly horizontal residential property developers, the Subdivision & Housing Developers Association Inc. (SHDA), is joining the legal debate on the constitutional basis of land acquisition and distribution in the aftermath of the June 30, 2014, expiration of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) extension Law.

While the government’s move to distribute land beyond June 30 is seen favoring small farmers, on the other side of the fence are landowners, real estate developers in the countryside and possibly some religious groups.

Former SHDA president Eduardo Alunan, who is into sugar farming and real estate development in Bacolod, lamented that the government, through the Department of Agrarian Reform, is indiscriminately flagging land titles for CARP coverage.

“They even stamped lands owned by the Church and some are even roads or right of way [areas]. We may have no land anymore to develop,” he said.

Before any land is subjected to CARP, Alunan—the brother of Rafael Alunan III, former secretary of interior and local government and of tourism during the Ramos and Cory Aquino regimes—said there would first have to be a negotiation between the landowner and the government. “It can’t be arbitrary,” he said.

As this is a question of constitutionality, groups opposing the DAR’s move are going to the Supreme Court for intervention.

“SHDA is willing to assist because agricultural land is our raw material for socialized housing,” he said, adding that once stamped under CARP coverage, the land loses its value.

“CARP has been a failure, even the leftists say so. CARP beneficiaries tend to just lease out the land,” he said, adding that distribution of land without financial or technical assistance won’t benefit the farmers.

“And since there’s that cloud of doubt, landowners can’t project the future. They will no longer modernize their farms. It’s not the way to deal with Afta (Asean Free Trade Area). In Thailand, they really support farmers with equipment, fertilizers and even low tax regimes.” Doris C. Dumlao

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